Winter Fun!!!

-2 here right now, but the sun if finally coming out. Perfect Icecycle weather.

Asher

Last week Asher had his appointment with OHSU - Casey Eye Inst., and he also got his glasses. Trying to keep glasses on a 5 month has to one of the most ridiculous tasks I've ever heard of, but it does seem to help him see better. Within the last week we have noticed him grasping more things in his hands and playing more intently with his toys. It's hard to say if this is a direct result of the glasses since kids can change and develop so quickly, but if I had to guess I'd say the glasses are helping a great deal. They are however, not the most stylish of eye apparel. I think they look like something Elton John would wear, but there really isn't anything else that would fit him. In fact, these are really a little to big.

Ashers appointment actually went really well...I think. The Dr.'s said we won't truly know how his eyesight is until he is about 6 years old. Basically he needs to be able to help in his prescriptions and be able to communicate by saying this is better or worse. Also, his eyes are still developing.

We will take him back for a follow up in 4 months, but the Dr.'s felt like it was probably not a case of ocular albinism, which is good news, but he definitely if very far sighted and has some nystagmus (involuntary rapid eye movements). But he nystagmus is something that will not get worse, and may even get better. Many people also are not overly bothered by their nystagmus as their brain gets used to interpreting the data that the eyes are bringing it.

Anyway, the Dr.'s were almost non-chalant in attitude which I assume is good and although they couldn't make any certain predictions on how Asher would be able to see in the future, the overall appointment was very encouraging for us and we really felt like we were privileged to go to one of the very best eye care facilities in the nation.

The rest of the trip was good. Thanksgiving was filled with turkey, stuffing, pie, and wii boxing tournaments. The kids finished the day by licking the whip cream beaters.

Thank you to everyone that was praying for Asher. We are really thankful that the appointment went well, but are anxious to see how he progresses.

We area also very aware that we are lucky to have to strong healthy kids. Eye problems are serious...but there are so many worse things that we are really thankful for all the things that are just perfect with our kids.

A Prayer Request

Once again, it is another sleepless night for me. I am up and feel the need to ask those of you who love and care about our family to send up some extra prayers for Asher. A few weeks ago we took the boys in for their well-baby check ups and our Pediatrician (who I love) pointed out some irregular eye movements with Asher. I had noticed these eye movements, but was hoping it was just me being a paranoid mommy and tried not to worry about it. Our pediatrician referred us to a Opthamologist that specializes in Pediatric care for a more in depth exam. I took Asher to the eye doctor on Monday, and by then I had resigned myself to the fact that he may have to have glasses. This is not totally unexpected, considering both of my parents wear glasses, I had eye surgery at 18 months and have worn glasses and contacts since and there is some general vision problems on Jeremy's side of the family. I was not, however, prepared for the diagnosis I received for my sweet little boy. The doctor recommeneded I get him in glasses ASAP to prevent any sensory or motor skill development issues, because apparently he is extremely far sighted and not seeing much of anything. In addition, he has a condition called Congenital Nystagmus (google it and you'll find all you need to know) which causes a seemingly continuous pendulum like movement with his eyes. The Nystagmus has a variety of forms and the doctor said there is more than even the far sightedness and nystagmus going on and they have now referrd us to Oregon Health Sciences University to the Casey Eye Institute for additional services. There is a whole laundry list of issues they are going to be screening him for and there is some concern that his vision problems may not be correctable with glasses, meaning he may need to learn to function in his daily life with low vision. I have an appointment at the Casey Eye Institute on Tuesday 11/25 and I am praying we will get some answers then.
As a Mommy, I have a million concerns, and I am torn in a hundred ways...I am so very thankful that the technology exists to catch these vision problems before he starts to really suffer, and so very sad that my sweet baby boy has to face hardships that frankly just don't seem fair. Asher's glasses come in next week and hopefully he will find some relief from the blurred vision he is experiencing.
Please pray for our baby, that the diagnosis will be better than we are prepared for and peace for all of us.

Trick or Treat

Halloween at our house took on a whole new meaning this year. Bryant really got into the pumpkin carving with Daddy and wanted to participate in every detail of the process. He carried around the pumpkin scoop (or shovel as he calls it) all weekend, and is still very excited when we go in our out the front door and see the pumpkins. I was pleasantly surprised that he actually tolerated and was extremely patient with his little Halloween costume too. Jeremy's sister, Jill, had a little puppy costume that she bought for her youngest son Baylor to wear, but Baylor wanted nothing to do with the puppy costume and so Bryant got to use it this year and he looked adorable. We dressed Asher up in this sweet little green dragon/monster sleeper and they were both darling (of course!) :-)

I think I mentioned in last year's post that Sister's does this little trick or treat parade for kids under 7 and it is a late afternoon outing, so little ones aren't out in the dark trick or treating. The weather was threatening all day, but beautiful while we participated in the parade. Bryant rode in the new wagon he got for his birthday, and he really seemed to enjoy the whole process of saying trick or treat and thank you, and best of all, he got a lot of sucker balls (or for those of you who don't speak "toddler", he got a lot of suckers in his candy bag!)

Asher spent the whole parade sleeping in the baby pack, but I am pretty sure he thoroughly enjoyed his first Halloween. We have LOTS of candy at our house, so if you are in the neighborhood and need a little chocolate boost, stop by, we would really love to share.

Below is a shot I took of Asher Halloween night playing on his changing table and short little video of the excited baby. We have this cute little mirror that he loves to look in and we always get big smiles when he is looking up at the darling baby in the mirror~

Bryant's Big Bash

Today our sweet little boy turned 2. It was sort of nostalgic for me to look back on where we were 2 years ago today and remember all the time spent in the hospital awaiting his arrival and the wonderful memories that come with the birth of a new baby. He is such and amazing, sweet, kind, helpful, loving, busy, smart little guy, the last 2 years have truly been a blast. Jeremy and I decided to go ahead and have a party for him, realizing he wouldn't care either way, because we finally have a space suitable for entertaining. The party was Saturday evening and we had about 25 people over for pizza, cake and ice cream. The weather really could not have been more beautiful, 70+ degrees at the end of October! The kids were able to spend most of their time playing together outside and Bryant loved the commotion and activity of all those playmates.

Asher had his own buddies to play with at the party...my friend Regan and her husband Dave came over with their daughter Colby, who is exactly one month younger than Asher, and Jeremy's cousin Paul and his wife Shauna brought their kiddos, the youngest one is Crosby and he is 4 days older than Asher. We had to take the opportunity to capture a shot of all the babies together when everyone was awake, happy and not hungry, and believe me, those moments are few and far between with 3 new babies. (Carrington, my friend with triplets is probably the only one reading this that can TRULY understand!) :-) (In the picture with the three babies, from left to right: Asher, Colby, Crosby)

Bryant had a fantastic day and loved every minute of the party from the pizza (maybe his favorite dinner), to the "yummy orange pop" and chocolate cake, oh and don't forget about the presents. He had more help than he could possibly ask for when it comes to opening presents, I think Jeremy was a bit overwhelmed, but Bryant was a true host, sharing all his new presents with his cousins and loving every minute of it.
Bryant woke up this morning, on his actual birthday, and asked me "where'd everyone go?", I guess he figured the party would continue after he got out of bed, very cute! Anyway, for those of you who were not able to make it to the bash, we wanted to share some pictures of the event for you.

Asher Smiles

It is late, and as the Mommy of any small child knows, sleep is precious, and sleeping is what I should be doing, but instead my mind is racing with a million and one things I need to do tonight, tomorrow, next week...so, in an effort to calms these thoughts, I am writing on the blog, so hopefully I won't bore you all too much!

The picture above is Asher on his Grammy's (Jeremy's Mom) lap at the Women of Faith Conference in Portland a few weeks ago. Asher was one of few males in a room filled with literally thousands of women and I had to caputre the moment. I attended the conference on Friday night and all day Saturday and being Asher's primary food source, he came too. He was amazing! The conference was Friday evening for 3 hours and all day Saturday 9am-5pm and despite close quarters and LOUD music, talking and clapping, he was an angel baby, really, I debated whether I should even bother, but he did amazing and it helped to have so many welcoming arms to rock and cuddle him.

Asher is changing so much, it is hard to believe he is almost 4 months old and our big boy Bryant is turning 2 on Sunday, time seriously does fly. We have been making an effort to capture the moments of our lives with these two sweet boys, but too often we are just busy enjoying th moment and forget to pull out the camera, we will have to get better about that.

I wanted to post a quick video that is sure to lift anyone's spirits of Asher's conversation with me the other day while he was laying in my lap and I was trying to work, this was one moment where the camera was close at hand and I was so thankful!

The picture to the left is my good buddy Regan and she is holding her little girl Colby on the right and Asher on the left. There is exactly one month between them, Asher is older, but can you see why, when we go places together we are constantly asked if they are twins, it is hysterical, we should start keeping a tally of how often we are asked that!

Here are a few more pics of the boys over the last couple of weeks...we visited the pumpkin patch and I will have to get Jeremy to upload those pictures in the next couple of days, they are darling!!

Few More Pics...

I echo Jeremy's statements that life has been busy around here. My company is really taking off on the West Coast and as a result, my workload has increased some as well. I am thankful for the work and even more thankful that it doesn't take me away from my kids and all in all it is a wonderful situation but boy does is make for some busy days!! :-)

The boys and I went over to Portland a few weeks ago for a picnic get-together with my Dad's side of the family and I spent a few days working while we were over. This was the first time most of my family had seen Asher and Bryant was quite the show off with all his words. As Jeremy mentioned in the last posting, Bryant loves to say "Mine" and "No", but he is a copier and he will repeat anything and everything we say. When he needs something, juice, milk, whatever, he says, "May I want some please." It is so cute and I will have to get it on video and post it so you can all hear the sweet attempt at being polite.

Asher with my Dad and his puppy Bella

Asher is really starting to smile and interact with us, which is super fun for Bryant. Asher has been fighting Thrush, a yeast infection in his mouth, for the last month and I finally gave up on the first batch of medicine they gave me and went for the expensive quick fix and I am happy to report it seems to be working!

Jeremy just returned from an elk hunting trip and I will let him report, when he feels ready, as to how that whole trip went.

Here are a few pics to enjoy:

Asher with his Uncle Adam (my brother)

Bryant and his cousin Cortlyn (my brother's little girl)

Well with work and huntin there has been little time left to update this thing and the following is a weak attempt. I keep a camera handy to catch the kids doing something cool, or to catalog the evil deer who have vowed to destroy all my landscape endeavors, but I don't really have the time or energy to organize any of it so here is a few pics to cover what has been going on. Bryant has been a big help in settling into the new place, and his little brother is growing like a noxious weed. Bryants favorite words are mine and no, and Ashers favorite thing to do is cry. Amy has been really busy with work, and of course the kids. Also there are a few pics of the house so you can see how it turned out. I'll let you guess which office is mine, and which is amy's.
Will try to get some more pics of Asher up soon.

Our Boys...

Many fans of Life's Interruptions will notice that our blog has not been updated for a good, hmmm, almost 8 weeks! Interestingly enough, that is the exact age of our little punkin Asher. Coincidence, I think not!

Life in the Davis household is nothing short of busy, that is really the only descriptive word I can come up with. I returned back to work (at home, but working nevertheless) when Asher was 5 weeks old, so between caring for two little ones, still working on organizing the house, working, and daily household activities, updating the blog sadly falls very low in the list of priorities each day. I felt the need to let you all know that we are doing great, and loving every minute of watching our two beautiful boys grow and change.

Bryant seems to be adjusting to his new Baby Asher very well and truthfully I think he can't remember a time when Baby Asher wasn't a part of our lives. He loves to "hold the baby" and he always gives Asher a kiss on the head when he is holding him. Every morning when he gets up, before we do anything else, we have to go find Baby Asher and say Hi. We are working on teaching Bryant that Asher isn't capable of holding toys, playing catch or sharing his snacks, but overall the adjustment has gone really well, much better than I expected.

I was able to start running again last week and thanks to a brand new double jogging stroller I received for my baby shower just before Asher was born, the boys get to come with me for early morning jogs. Asher sleeps and Bryant loves having a buddy next to him. I am feeling great and have been pleasantly surprised at how rapidly I am getting back to my pre-baby pace and distance...it really feels good to be active again.

Jeremy has been very busy between jobs trying to get our house landscaped while maintaining the "paying" jobs. Our yard looks amazing, we have a beautiful pond/water feature in the front, or as Bryant calls it "Daddy's Water" with fish and lots of plants and trees and a nice sized paver patio with a built in planter and a nice grassy area for the boys to play and romp around. We are so thankful for the space our new house provides to spread out, what a difference!! I will get some pictures of the yard posted here shortly, but I thought in the meantime you would all enjoy some pictures of the kiddos!

We are still working on getting our townhouse sold and are praying it will sell very soon. I am going to make a real effort to update this more often, so please hang in there and keep checking back. Love to you all!!!!